A heretical cultivator in Bureau 749, I'm the fiercest at pulling out tendons and skinning peop

Doge did not relax just because he lost contact.

At the very moment the connection was severed, he activated a secret technique.

He carefully simulated a faint, distorted, yet incredibly realistic connection, and coiled it around himself.

Like a carefully laid bait, a lifelike disguise.

He's still waiting.

Waiting for an opportunity.

A place that can completely, cleanly, and permanently eliminate future troubles...

The chance to get rid of that bald monk Faming!

……

749th round, Grand Martial Arts Exercise.

The place was bustling with noise, and the air was thick with the aura of a dragon.

Dog was lying in the corner, seemingly dozing off, but its ears were perked up high.

When that familiar, greedy, resentful, and determined gaze, like a cold, venomous snake, silently coiled around him.

Doggy's body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment, then relaxed again, even letting out a lazy yawn.

A cold, triumphant smile silently curved across the dog's lips.

"They're here."

The opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Fragments of images from the Destiny Path flashed by.

He saw himself being captured by Faming and imprisoned.

He also saw that everyone he knew seemed to have forgotten him; their memories had been influenced, modified, and covered up by an invisible force.

Doggy knew that this was Faming's doing.

What methods did that bald monk use to monopolize the position and conceal his tracks?

but……

Faming overlooked one point.

Or rather, he simply didn't know that.

There was a little guy who had been subtly nurtured and protected by the Golden Dragon of Fortune for a long time.

They have extremely high resistance, or even immunity, to these kinds of techniques that confuse the mind and alter memories.

She remembers.

She will always remember.

When I went to pick up Qiqi from school that day, Doggy turned his head and looked at Qiqi with a smile.

"Qiqi..."

"tomorrow……"

"I'll buy you a string of candied hawthorns."

"The biggest and sweetest kind, with the thickest sugar coating."

"I guarantee it'll be so sweet it'll make your teeth fall out."

"You have to remember that."

"Yes, Qiqi remembers, Doggy, candied hawthorn."

Qiqi nodded her little head earnestly.

Let's go back to the present.

Dog Lord was standing, while Faming was slumped over.

Despite its tattered fur, it stood upright with its head held high;

A monk, his robes charred black, huddled on the ground, trembling like a rotten leaf in the wind.

The positions have been completely reversed.

Dog Lord drooped his eyelids and looked down at Fa Ming, a mocking smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Senior brother..."

Doggy spoke slowly, his tone as casual as if he were chatting, but every word was like a poisoned nail.

"What goes around comes around, and this year it's my turn."

"This time, it's my turn to have something to say."

He took a small step forward, shadows looming over Famin's pale face.

"We're tired of hearing your grand theory that everything has its place, and we're sick of it."

"Now, it's your turn to listen to my reasoning."

Dog lowered his head, his face almost touching Faming's smoking bald head, his voice low but clear enough to send chills down Faming's spine:

"This is your fate."

"From the day you dragged me out of your soul, using me as a slop bucket, a stepping stone, and reserve rations..."

"From the day I tore off your half-hearted Bodhisattva status, donned this dog skin, and rushed out of the glittering cage of Jinshan Temple without looking back..."

"Ever since the day you reached out your claws to me in Jinghai and locked me in that demon-locking array that chanted sutras until the dog's brain was about to explode..."

"The ending of today's play has already been written."

"It's written in black and white, the strokes are strong and elegant, it can't be changed."

"This is called the choice of destiny, the cycle of cause and effect."

"The ending you wrote for yourself, stroke by stroke."

"You can't blame anyone else."

"Click".

A soft sound.

It was Ji Zuodao who took out his spine sword.

He walked up to Dog Master, said nothing, but simply flipped his wrist, turning the sword hilt forward and handing it over.

His face was expressionless, but the meaning in his eyes was crystal clear.

"Dog Lord".

Ji Zuodao spoke, his voice calm.

"or……"

"You came in person?"

"Let's vent this anger completely."

"Let's settle this score."

A tiny wriggling sound came from the cracks in the tattered black dog skin on Dog Lord's body.

A slippery, dark red tentacle with a suction cup at the tip, its appearance sending chills down one's spine, silently extended out.

It was as if it were a sentient being, nimbly winding its way upwards and precisely wrapping around the hilt of the spine sword.

Dog Lord "gripped" the sword like that, his tentacles slowly adjusting the angle, so that the gleaming white sword tip was aimed at Fa Ming's chest, which was heaving violently due to fear and the burning of karmic fire.

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Even the distant, chaotic noise coming from the direction of Jinshan Temple seemed to be separated by a thick layer of glass, becoming blurry and distant.

Only nearby, the night wind rustled through the scorched earth, stirring up fine dust.

Dog Master held his sword, facing Fa Ming, and remained silent.

The mocking, malicious, and gleeful expression on the dog's face slowly faded away.

Instead, he wore a somewhat complex, even wistful, expression.

Its dog eyes looked at the tip of the sword, and it seemed as if it were looking through the tip of the sword at Faming, or at something from a much earlier time.

A barely audible, muffled sigh escaped his throat.

"well……"

Dog's voice suddenly became somewhat ethereal and soft, carrying a hint of indescribable emotion.

"Senior brother..."

"Speaking of which..."

"We know each other..."

"It must have been several hundred years, right?"

"From the moment I became conscious, all I've seen is you. We sleep in the same room, sit on the same cushion, read the same scripture, and learn the same skills..."

"What you know, I know too. What you're an expert in, I know perfectly well."

"Like reflections inside and outside a mirror."

"Although, you are stingy, calculating, and more cunning than a lotus root. You appear compassionate on the surface, but who knows what you're really thinking inside..."

"Although you treat me as a tool, as trash, as a stepping stone, and wish you could squeeze every last bit of value out of me before grinding me to dust, all to fulfill your supposedly pure and benevolent heart..."

"but……"

Dog sighed again, this time with an even stronger sense of melancholy in his voice.

"At least..."

"We've known each other for so long."

"We spend every day together, eating and living together, so surely we have some kind of bond, right?"

"Look at the miserable state you're in now..."

"In my heart..."

Dog stretched out its other intact front paw and covered its furry chest, its face showing a look of reluctance and deep conflict.

"I'm actually quite reluctant to part with it."

Faming, who was lying on the ground barely alive, suddenly felt his heart pound violently!

It was like a faint ray of hope suddenly shining into a pitch-black abyss, yet enough to drive one mad!

"Could it be...?!"

In Faming's mind, which was in a state of chaos from the intense heat, a thought that even he found hard to believe suddenly popped into his head.

Could it be that this inner demon... this Fa'an... this old dog... is still clinging to the past ties of incense offerings?

Is its current sense of melancholy and reluctance genuine?!

When people are in dire straits, they will desperately grasp at even the smallest straw.

Moreover, this is someone like Faming, who has cultivated for hundreds of years, has an extreme desire for "life," and an almost obsessive pursuit of the "path."

He doesn't want to die!

He could not accept that the "opportunity for enlightenment" that he had planned for hundreds of years, paid countless prices for, and even risked becoming an enemy of Bureau 749 to finally seize was just vanishing into thin air!

Even if there's only a sliver of a possibility...

Even if this might just be another trick played by this cunning inner demon...

He's willing to gamble!

We have to gamble!

Faming's eyes even held a hint of humble pleading.

He made a hoarse, broken bellows-like sound in his throat as he tried to force a smile, a conciliatory, pleading smile.

Although this made his cracked face look even more grotesque and distorted.

"Fa...Fa'an...Master...Junior Brother..."

He uttered a few words hoarsely and with great difficulty, each word seeming to have used up all his strength.

"If you... if you have any lingering feelings... spare me..."

"I...I swear! From now on, I will live under an assumed name...and never...never appear before you again!"

"I only ask... I only ask for a way to live!!"

Doggy listened quietly, then suddenly, a grin appeared on his lips.

The slight sadness and reluctance on his face vanished completely, without a trace.

Instead, there was pure malice.

"Pfft!"

A dull yet clear sound rang out as a sharp blade sliced ​​through flesh, pierced fascia, and reached deep into the internal organs.

"Well--?!"